Shanghai on wheels

My wife, Kerry, and I probably hold the world record for being honked at the most times by moped drivers in Shanghai.

You see, we’re on a China Cycle Tours’ half-day Classic Bike Tour of this megatropolis and controlled chaos is the name of the game.

It’s illegal for car drivers to beep their horns in Shanghai’s city centre.

However, moped drivers have free rein. And they exploit the rules like crazy, honking constantly at cyclists like us, other mopeds, pedestrians, vehicles and just because.

It’s the cacophony that still rings in our heads as the soundtrack of Shanghai.

Neophytes

It doesn’t help that we’re first-time cyclists in this heaving city: timid when we should be aggressive, gawking at the passing scenery when we should be paying attention and generally getting in the way of rushing mopeds.

Despite all the frenzy, there wasn’t even a close call, let alone a collision or crash.

Our China Cycle Tours guide, Victor Hamm, kept us safe with his simple, sage advice: “Just stay close and follow me.”

And, he did so brilliantly, dressed casually and practically in socks and sandals and a high-viz vest.

Bike is best

Whenever Kerry and I travel, we seek out a bike tour.

It’s the ideal way to nimbly get around a new destination, see the sites efficiently and meet informative local guides and other tourists.

So, we hop on bikes with Victor at China Cycle Tours’ headquarters in the French Concession neighbourhood and start our 20-kilometre journey through quiet, leafy streets.

The French Concession is the enclave of European architecture built by the French when they leased it from Shanghai from 1849 to the 1940s so the French could get a commercial foothold in the massive Chinese market.

(There were also British, American and Japanese concessions in Shanghai over roughly the same period).

Park, garden, lunch, alleys

Our first and second stops are tranquil: Fuxing Park where the Saturday crowds of locals are playing badminton, waving dragon banners, practicing tai chi, dancing, busking and strolling, and Yu Garden, the classical Chinese urban oasis built during the Ming Dynasty.

We stop at Feng Yu restaurant for a big lunch spread of dumplings, wonton soup, beef and bean sprouts and scallion oil noodles.

It’s our sustenance for cycling 20 km and braving the streets and roads where we share the bike lanes with all those aforementioned impatient moped drivers.

After-lunch stops included the authentic alley homes of Cite Bourgogne draped in drying laundry, and Tianzifang Market, a warren of zig-zag alleys chock-a-block with shops, restaurants and bars.

Check out: http://www.chinacycletours.com/

The rest

With five days in Shanghai, we have lots of time to take in the rest of the city’s biggest hits.

Day and night we stroll the Bund — the buzzy 2.6-km promenade on the colonial west side of the Huangpu River.

The view across the river is the go-go skyline of the Lujiazui financial hub, complete with the distinctive twisting 128-storey Shanghai Tower and Oriental Pearl Tower with its two perfect pearl-shaped orbs.

A Lujiazui skyline light show runs every night as soon as it gets dark, attracting crowds on both sides of the river.

We will also take one of those touristy night cruises on the Huangpu for more views of the Bund and Lujiazui; shop on the neon-lit Nanjing pedestrian strip; take a food tour for yet more dumplings; and enjoy some rooftop bar hopping for Chinese Riesling and even more Bund and Lujiazui views.

How to fly

Shanghai is part of Air Canada’s bullish push into China.

There have been daily flights between Vancouver and Shanghai for years, but the airline also launched three-times-a-week service from Toronto in June, which will expand to daily in the spring of next year.

Air Canada Vacations also packages return flights to Shanghai with hotel stays and tours for seamless trips.

Air Canada, as well, flies from Vancouver to Hong Kong and Beijing, and in the spring will inaugurate Vancouver to Guangzhou flights, the only direct link to the Chinese metropolis by a North American airline.

Check out: aircanada.com.